Alex Balfour tells the new media story of the London 2012 Games

Alex Balfour began his
talk at The
Story with a tear inducing recap reel of the London 2012 Games.
The former head of new media for the Games was here to tell the
story of one of the most "successful" Olympics ever held -- the
slow motion montage of finishing line celebrations and flag waving
crowds drove the point home, that the Games had connected with
people.

July 2005 was where things began, when Sebastian Coe told
the world of the vision for the London 2012 games while speaking in
Singapore: "To use the power of the Games to inspire change" --
this was the driving vision that Balfour's new media team were to
drive toward.

"These visions can be slightly portentous," said Balfour.
It was an ambitious project -- the heady undertaking of changing
attitudes toward disability was only one aspect of a vast list of
objectives and aims.

The way that Balfour and his team went about attempting to
achieve these aims was in telling the story of this vision,
unpacking a narrative with a clear and simple communications
strategy. They needed to tell the story of the Games -- that they
were "doing it right", that everything was working and going as it
should be, from construction to transport infrastructures; telling
stories that would sit around key themes of the Games, be that an
athlete or a team. The story would also require the team to engage
in the "trench warfare" of dealing with the press, which was
looking to dig up a disaster.

Every day in the run up to the Games saw public events
that required planned messages to go out. An example of that
structured communications project was the countdown to the Games,
in which various Olympics staff members would form a giant number
-- a dull story about a site visit suddenly gained centrefold
presence in the media, as the public took interest in the
countdown. "This was a rallying point for us where we could tell
the story, and actively engage with those involved," said
Balfour.

But things did occasionally go wrong. Balfour pointed to
the unhappy process some people found when applying for tickets:
"After we got past the ballot we had a series of live sales. My
team was in the interesting position of monitoring what was
happening, and also applying for tickets themselves."

Balfour managed to get himself some tickets for athletics
-- legitimately. As problems began to emerge with the ballot
system, Balfour tweeted about the issue, likening it to managing a
crowded Tube station, standing at the barriers and updating the
white boards. By Balfour giving a message of "we're all in this
together", it weakened the group's ability to tell people that the
problem with the system lay outside their control -- it was due to
a data processing error with Ticketmaster. A united voice had to be
found; people didn't want to hear it was working for some and not
others, particularly if those others worked for the Games
itself.

There was a strategy for the new media roadmap for the
Games -- a roadmap which Balfour admits wasn't put together with
any clear knowledge of what they wanted to achieve. "We were
still grappling with the vision, telling a story and sharing the
inspiration of the Games. It came together, surprisingly, at a
brand workshop -- where should the Olympic brand be positioned?"
All the major stakeholders were invited. Out of the workshop came
something that struck a chord with everyone: "We will connect young
people to sport and the values that the Olympic and Paralympic
sport represent." How? "By giving a voice to the inspiring stories
that represent those values and helping people share those stories
with each other."

The idea turned on the knowledge that only five percent of the
athletes that won gold would go on to make a significant career
from their appearance in the Games, from media appearances and
other cash rewards -- the vast number just took part to be
involved. Telling the story of all of these athletes, and allowing
people to connect with their stories, was thus the goal.

"We used every channel that we could to get these stories
out to every market -- even the mascots had a voice," explained
Balfour. Venues and gyms were given their own 'voice' on channels
like Twitter. Facebook was used extensively, 83 million emails were
sent out, 50 Paralympic bloggers used Samsung Notes to blog live
from the event -- all in all creating 800 videos from around the
Games that you wouldn't find on other channels. "That was thrilling
for us to see these unscripted stories, coming through raw," said
Balfour.

The former head of new media for the games concluded by
sharing the secret of his team's success: "The secret is that if
you get it all right, if you deliver it all properly, if you keep
the narrative consistent and keep the media onside, ultimately when
you get to the Games all you're doing is orchestrating emotion on a
massive scale."

And as well as extensive planning, "It helps to have Danny
Boyle involved".